Wife and I were in Westfall. We wrapped up the Defias quests and escorted the Traitor to the Deadmines. We were ready to go after Van Cleef himself.

We ran back out to Moonbrook, she an 18 Druid, me a 19 Warrior. One of the group was a level 20 Druid. Rather, it was a level 20 cat. He’d joined us for the traitor and so, running alongside him, I asked how he liked the cat form. “Great! I love it!” Did he take the Feline Swiftness talent? “Huh?” “You know, run speed of 115% first point, 130% second point?” “Oh, where is that?”

We put the group together. A level 17 Priest, who did know his stuff, and a level 18 Rogue I believe.

As you are fully aware, level 20 Druids in cat form are immune to most forms of damage. As we zoned into the instance he runs ahead and aggro’s a mob of workers and 3 of the elites. He was not immune to any form of damage. And we weren’t either. We run back to our bodies. “I’m the Warrior, I’ll pull, I’ll tank.” That’s a reasonable request, isn’t it? I’ve got a shield, I’ve got a Priest, two druids, and a rogue behind me. Except the 20 cat runs to the right aggroing as he goes, the rogue shoots at something to left and I simply stand there in stunned disbelief. Hell, at that point it’s pretty much a Dance Off! for all the good resistence is going to do.

I message the priest “Take care.” and the wife and I simply leave the party, take the spirit rez, and fly up to Redridge. A warrior and a druid are pretty handy together and we clear out a few of the quests there. But then we decided to take another stab at the Deadmines.

I’m whispered by a guildie of the new guild we (Freewind, Itarilde, Greenclaw) are in. “Deadmines?” “Sure. Got room for 2?” “No, sorry, only one.” Well my wife, Itarilde, is aching to get back to Guild Wars so she says “Have fun.”

The guildie is a level 20 Warlock. With us were an 18 Druid, a 18 Priest, and a 17 Mage or so. The guildie was first time ever in the Deadmines. The Mage knew the place. The Priest didn’t say thing one. The Druid. … I wonder if you see where I’m going with this.

We zone in, the Druid changes to bear form and charges. He’s being beaten like pancake dough by a mob of defias stuff, he cries “Help” and I run back out of the instance with the others. We zone back in. “I’m the tank. Let me pull with my gun.” “Shut up” the druid says. “I’m doing DPS.” I run recap and in fact, tanking, I was #1 in damage output. The Warlock’s Succubus was #2. The druid was #3. Whatever. I’ve also /ignored him. I think he added “I want to hurry this up because I power grind.” Not being to hear his response I informed the group “This isn’t grinding, it’s an instance. Patient wins the day.” Or something to that effect.

And it goes well. I don’t get a lot of heals from the druid, but I pull the mobs, one or two at a time, and hold their attention tanking them. Very manageable for us. Before we get to Smite I’ve taken him off /ignore.

So far, so good. They get the adds, I pull Smite away from the boat and hold him. The adds dead we hurt Smite enough, and yada yada yada, Smite’s dead. Some sword drops. Nothing special. I simply greed it. It’s no upgrade. The druid is beside himself. Fourth time there and still no hammer for him. We work up the ramp and then we have our first blue item drop. It’s a one-handed sword. I ask if I can need it. Nobody objects. So I do. So does the Druid. He wins it. At this point I should have told my guildie “Kick him or I’m out of here.” But I’m new in the guild, there’s more depending on finishing this than the druid (who’s only there for loot anyway).

We continue on. The Warlock’s succubus manages to be given a target on an upper deck. Next thing we know there’s 20 defias around us. Most of us die except the mage who’s ran up and jumped on the big wheel. We rez and return, and the mage jumps down. We proceed up the and manage to be wiped by Greenskin. We return to the instance and it’s reset.

So we had this reckless Druid in catform, we had this Druid ninja looter, and we’re getting sloppy. The druid has no reason to remain, and we get the offer from a Paladin in the guild who’d come and help. The Druid won’t leave. “This is good xp” he says. But, at least he leaves, the Paladin joins us and we run up and get Van Cleef. (The place had respawned for the most part as well.)

The Cape of the Brotherhood dropped. Warlock, Priest, Mage, and Warrior there. (The Paladin is beyond that level.) They all greed it, and, nice guy that I am (I’m no Ninja Looter) I greed it too. The Mage came away with a nice +Agi & +Sta cloak. Wonder if I could have put it to better use and should I have needed it?

So, I turned in the head, got new mail leggings, and wondered how many runs to have the /random chance at getting the things I want by luck, and without the ninjas.

Druids in cat form are very viable. Like I already told you, my cat form Druid topped the damage charts on run by simply backstabbing mobs otherwise working on hunter pets. But a cat that thinks he’s Superman, lose him like he was a leper or something.

Ninja Looters? Give them the boot immediately. They’re only going to Ninja the next thing they want too.

4 Responses to

In minor dungeons like Deadmines, I wouldn’t worry about ninjas. Roll Need on the things you need. If the party objects and kicks you, well, it’s not like that’s the last party in the world. As long as you’re not Needing on things you don’t really need, I wouldn’t say you’re doing anything wrong. (I still wouldn’t Greed on anything that’s BoP unless I could disenchant it, though.)

Wow – reading this reminds me of one of the reasons I started my own guild. One of the absolute best parts of Pathos Hammer is that we have mature folks that are the most even handed and respectful loot managers that I have ever seen.

In respect to your ‘druid problems’ – yeah – it’s sad but true. The Official WOW Druid forums are full of people that hate the class because the invariably meet people that in truth should have probably played mages or rogues.

As a 59 druid that has seen the best and worse of what the class has to offer – I can truthfully say that if you’re not willing to learn how to play each of the classes represented and ready to learn *when* your group needs you to play them – you might want to try something else.